Serialization Issue

I'm trying to serialize an Area (I've subclassed it for serialization
- SerializableArea) but I can't write it out and read it back in. I'm
not sure if its an issue with the Area class (it did complain about
not being serializable when I tried to use Area as a class member of
my Track class directly ) or with the serialization. Ultimately I am
trying to serialize a Track to disk, but I've just been trying to get
Area (or subclass) to serialize properly for the time being.

[START CODE]

import java.awt.geom.*;
import java.io.*;

public class Track implements Serializable
{
    Path2D.Double centerLine;

    SerializableArea area = null;

    String name="";

    //constructor
    public Track( SerializableArea a, Path2D.Double centerLine)
    {
        this.centerLine = centerLine;
        this.area = a;
    }

    //setters
    public void setName(String name)
    {
        this.name=name;
    }

    public void setArea(SerializableArea a)
    {
        this.area = a;
    }

    //getters
    public Path2D.Double getCenterLine()
    {
        return this.centerLine;
    }

    public String getName()
    {
        return this.name;
    }

    public SerializableArea getArea()
    {
        return area;
    }
}

[END CODE]

As you can see a track contains a center line (think yellow divider
line) and an area (the actual track boundary). When I try to
serialize this track, the Area portion gets lost between the writing
and reading. A call, for instance, to getBounds() after reading the
track from disk, returns a 0,0,0,0 rectangle - also the isEmpty method
returns true. Both of these behave differently just prior to writing
the data to disk (see print statements in my Actions).

Below are my input and output functions:

[START CODE]

import javax.swing.*;

import java.awt.event.*;

import java.awt.*;

import java.awt.geom.*;

import java.io.*;

public class SaveTrackAction extends AbstractAction

{

    GUI gui;

     public SaveTrackAction(GUI gui)

     {

     super("Save Track");

     this.gui = gui;

     }

     public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent ae)

    {

                try

                {

                    JFileChooser dialog=new JFileChooser();

                    dialog.setDialogType(JFileChooser.SAVE_DIALOG);

                    dialog.setDialogTitle("Save Track");

                    JFrame jframe = this.gui.getJFrame();

if( dialog.showSaveDialog( jframe )==JFileChooser.APPROVE_OPTION )

                    {

                        FileOutputStream fos = new
FileOutputStream(dialog.getSelectedFile());

                        ObjectOutputStream ois = new ObjectOutputStream(fos);

                        SerializableArea sa = this.gui.getCanvas().getTrack().getArea();

System.out.println("Save:");

System.out.println(sa.getBounds());

                        ois.writeObject( sa );

                        fos.flush();

                        ois.flush();

                        ois.close();

                        fos.close();

                    }

                }

                catch(Exception e)

                {

                    System.err.println(e);

                }

    }

}

/**

 * @(#)NewTrackAction.java

 *

 *

 * @author

 * @version 1.00 2008/3/27

 */

import javax.swing.*;

import java.awt.event.*;

import java.awt.*;

import java.awt.geom.*;

import java.io.*;

public class LoadTrackAction extends AbstractAction

{

    GUI gui;

    public LoadTrackAction(GUI gui)

    {

     super("Load Track");

     this.gui = gui;

    }

    public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent ae)

    {
        try
        {
                    JFileChooser dialog=new JFileChooser();

                    dialog.setDialogTitle("Load Track");

                    dialog.setApproveButtonText("Load");

if(dialog.showOpenDialog( LoadTrackAction.this.gui.getJFrame() )==JFileChooser.APPROVE_OPTION)

                    {

                        FileInputStream fis = new
FileInputStream(dialog.getSelectedFile());

                        ObjectInputStream ois = new ObjectInputStream(fis);

                        SerializableArea sa = (SerializableArea)ois.readObject();
                        //System.out.println( "Track Name: "+track.getName() );

                System.out.println("Track bounding rectangle: "+sa.getBounds() );
                                System.out.println("Track is singular:
"+sa.isSingular() );
                                System.out.println("Track is empty:
"+sa.isEmpty() );

                        //LoadTrackAction.this.gui.getCanvas().setModeratingShape(null);
                        this.gui.getCanvas().setArea( sa );
                        //this.gui.getCanvas().setCenterLine( track.getCenterLine() );

                        //fis.close();
                        ois.close();
                    }

                }

                catch(Exception e)

                {

                    System.err.println(e);

                }

    }

}

[END CODE]

So, anyways, the "Area" doesn't get serialized and I've been stuck
trying to figure out why. Also, in case it matters I'll include the
subclassed Area, which does implement Serializable (and gets rid of
Area's NotSerializableException).

[START CODE]

import java.awt.geom.*;
import java.io.*;
import java.awt.*;

public class SerializableArea extends Area implements Serializable
{
    public SerializableArea()
    {
        super();
    }

    public SerializableArea(Shape s)
    {
        super(s);
    }
}

[END CODE]

It may be that for some reason, Area isn't serializable and perhaps
that won't change even if its subclassed to implement Serializable -
or it may be that there's a "hole" in my Area and that somehow
violates the definition of an Area, and so when it gets serialized, it
just breaks. Anyhow, I've spent too much time on what shouldn't be a
problem and could use some other viewpoints on it.

Thanks ahead of time.

Max